Massive Relief Now to New
Orleans!
Joint Statement on the Hurricane Katrina Disaster
by Socialist Action and Labor
Standard

The following
statement, drafted Sept. 1,
2005, is an initial response to the disaster in New Orleans and adjacent areas. Further updates
can be expected shortly.

The catastrophe in New Orleans has had
profound reverberations across the country and internationally. In the world’s
richest nation the government stood by for days, virtually paralyzed, while
tens of thousands of people were abandoned, starving, without drinking water or
the minimum of medical necessities, in toxic floodwater. Louisiana’s
governor and New Orleans’s
mayor ordered police to protect private property and shoot “looters” instead of
rescuing people in desperate need.

Everything evil and barbaric in
capitalism is being exposed to additional millions as this terrible crisis
unfolds, from the long-term environmental degradation and disrepair that has
been accumulating for decades to the immediate failure to mobilize the full
power of the government to meet human needs first of all.

Make no mistake, the poor and
oppressed of this country, working people in general, and all others who care
about fundamental human values will be greatly influenced by what happens around
this disaster in the weeks and months ahead. Many see, or will see, that this catastrophe was magnified by capitalism’s subordination
of human needs to profit and plunder.

What
must be done?

First and foremost, we demand
that the federal government—the only force capable of intervening with the
resources necessary to avert a further compounding of the horror that is
occurring—stop the foot-dragging and take immediate action to bring massive aid
and relief to the tens of thousands suffering in New Orleans and elsewhere as
the result of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

We demand that the federal
government spend billions and trillions, if necessary, for New Orleans and all other affected areas now!

The real needs of human beings must
be met immediately!

The government has no hesitation
about spending trillions of dollars on mass murder (war) and the attempt to
subjugate Iraq,
where it is spending an estimated $4 billion per day.

We demand billions per day to New Orleans, not to the Iraq war!

What is needed is a massive
relief effort on the scale of the so-called Marshall Plan that was organized to
help war-ravaged Europe after World War II.

We demand the massive
mobilization of the nation’s resources, not to pursue imperialist war aims, but
to serve the immediate and long-term needs of working people, mostly Black and
poor, in New Orleans
and adjacent areas.

We demand the immediate shipment
of food, medical supplies, and water by any means necessary, and the provision
of safe, hygienic shelter, to save the lives of those who are in danger. This
must be followed by the massive, temporary evacuation of everyone in need and
the simultaneous allocation of everything required to restore New Orleans and all
other affected areas to full and safe operation, especially the rebuilding of
levees and the enactment of flood-control measures sufficient to withstand Category
5 hurricanes in the future.

We demand jobs at union wages
for all who have lost them and for all who are needed to work on the
reconstruction, repair, and rebuilding of the homes and basic infrastructure that
have been destroyed. This must be undertaken at federal government expense, and
it must include immediate measures to reverse the decades of environmental
destruction that stand as a backdrop and a magnifying factor of the present
catastrophe.

We call on trade union sisters
and brothers and their organizations to aid this effort and reach out in
solidarity with working people in distress as never before. We applaud those
trade unions, such as the fire fighters, air traffic controllers, food and
commercial workers, service employees, California Nurses Association, and
others, which have already taken such action.

We demand that massive U.S.
military forces be immediately sent to help with the rescue effort and the
reconstruction of destroyed areas—NOT to shoot down the desperate victims of
capitalism’s racism and oppression. NO to the “zero tolerance” advocated by the
national government (Bush) as well as state and local officials. They worry about
“protecting private property” when the lives of tens of thousands, if not
hundreds of thousands, are in immediate danger.

Return all Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Alabama National Guard forces,
with their equipment, from Iraq
to their home states immediately! They know their home areas best and can
provide aid to those who need it more effectively than can National Guard
troops being sent from other states.

As opposed to “zero tolerance,”
we demand zero racism! Provide aid to
all people who need it, regardless of race or the amount of money they have.
The racist aspect of the official response to this catastrophe was most clearly expressed in the online news website of
AOL.com, which featured two photos, one of a Black youth with a loaf of bread
with the caption “looter,” the other, a photo of a white couple with a loaf of
bread captioned “struggling to survive.” These were widely reproduced and/or
condemned, from WBAI to ABC NEWS.

These are just a few of the
demands that we put forward as of Sept. 1. More demands of a similar nature
will undoubtedly have to be raised as this crisis unfolds.

Socialist Action and Labor
Standard will soon be publishing an emergency pamphlet on New Orleans and the Hurricane Katrina
disaster as an essential tool for people seeking serious analysis. An article
on this crisis by Labor Standard editors Michael Livingston and Christine Frank
will be featured in the September issue of Socialist
Action newspaper.

These are dire times, when tens
of thousands of human beings are being made to pay the price of capitalism’s
horrific default. Tens of thousands stand exposed to the system’s fundamental
failure to immediately prioritize human needs. The dead have yet to be counted,
but the numbers will surely be qualitatively larger than the hundreds reported
to date.

New Orleans today is a taste of what
capitalism has in store for this country and the world as it ignores the coming
horror that is inherent in the capitalist-induced global warming of the entire planet.
Then, as now, the first to pay the price will be the poor and oppressed, while
those who have the money will flee the initial results of a catastrophe that
could dwarf what is now faced in New
Orleans.

The consequences of this
disaster cannot be underestimated in any arena, from the economy to the
consciousness of millions to the immediate plight of those still needing help.

Oil prices have already begun to
soar, allegedly because of the hurricane-related shutdown of Gulf oil
production, but more likely because of price gouging by the oil monopolies.
Fully half of the nation’s export grain passes through this now nearly
destroyed city, a fact that may well trigger additional tragedies elsewhere.

Below we reprint a letter from
David Jones, of Labor Standard. His letter captures the depth and magnitude of
this crisis. Socialist Action and Labor Standard are working together to
jointly educate as many as we can reach with our socialist program,
perspectives, and realistic solutions.

In this regard our Midwest socialist
educational conference, September 30-October 2 in Minneapolis, is well suited to pursue this
discussion. We will feature a major panel on the environment and capitalism
that will shed further light on the depth of the present disaster and what it
portends for the future.

Letter
by David Jones

It is almost impossible to
overstate the magnitude of this disaster, both in human terms for the North
American continent, and as a historic example of the criminal incompetency of
the capitalist system. In the richest country in the world a major metropolis
is going to be abandoned for weeks or even, as some are saying, for months!

In terms of loss of human life
in the U.S. this is perhaps
second only to the San Francisco
earthquake in 1906. The analogy that has sprung to the minds of some observers
quoted in the press, including the governor of Mississippi,
is “Hiroshima.”
The psychological and political underpinnings of that connection go very deep,
to say the least.

There will be economic
consequences, besides what is happening in human terms—death, disease,
displacement, unemployment, not to mention the opportunistic escalation of
gasoline and diesel prices. New Orleans is one of
the major ports of the United
States, where rail, trucking, and maritime
intersect. Half of U.S.
grain exports leave from the Port
of New Orleans. The
impact of this dysfunction will ripple out probably beyond immediate
comprehension.

This disaster that capitalism
has wrought has extremely ominous implications for the future. Clearly the
magnitude of this “natural” disaster is exponentially magnified by a series of
specific environmental and ecological circumstances created and driven by the
profit system. The evaluation, debate, and assigning of responsibility for this
disaster will increase in tone and tempo as the ideological damage control
operation gets into high gear.

In terms of the labor movement,
this highly industrialized area has many unions, and most international unions are
beginning to indicate some efforts to render financial assistance to their
beleaguered members, including the United Transportation Union. Other, more
far-reaching issues will soon arise—jobs, income, health care, etc.